Tuesday, July 26, 2011

From the "Try, try again" file.

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so I'm sure they're disappointed, but the Republicans are well on their way to completely ridiculous. I'm confident they'll get there unless we get them out of there.

Monday, July 25, 2011

The problem…

…isn't the relative quality of the Democratic spine, or President Obama's facility at negotiation, or who or what is right or wrong. Here, via Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), is the problem...

"It has always been a straight up or down vote. The new leadership in the House has decided that they want to add some budget cuts or other considerations to this vote, because that is their preference, and they are the leadership, so we are in this quagmire."

As far as the debt ceiling is concerned, we have a problem because the Republicans decided they wanted a problem. You might ask why, but the important question is what, as in what is "the single most important thing" they want to achieve. That's the lens to view every Republican action and statement through.

Friday, July 22, 2011

A reminder…

Remember, almost all of what we're seeing is either bargaining, spin, or some other form of posturing or misinformation. That's not bad -- but it is what it is, and there's no point in pretending that it's anything else.

If you think you know what's going to happen based on what they're - no matter who "they" are - saying, you should probably keep a good recipe for crow pie handy.

Dear Senator Sanders,

I'm a fan. You're great on the radio and you're right (that is, I agree with you) about many things. I'm glad you're a Senator and hope you keep your job as long as you want it.

That being said, you're not a member of my political party, and the business of nominating our presidential candidate is, therefore, none of your business. We can create all the trouble we can handle internally. Please don't feed the trolls.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

From the "Signs of the times" file.

It's one of those days…

…that seems to offer more good questions than good answers. Susie Madrak, with another of the former...

You all keep talking about "shared sacrifice" and "belt-tightening" when there's an 16% or so effective unemployment rate, wages are continuing their 30-year decline, jobs are non-existent and millions have lost their homes. For far too many of us, if we tighten our belts any more, we'll break our backs!

From the "Me neither" file.

As you read this, rich and powerful people in Washington, DC are trying to determine not whether they should cut programs designed to help low and middle-income Americans, but by how much they should cut those programs. The rich and powerful people in DC are making these cuts in order to pay for tax breaks they recently gave to rich people and large corporations. Additionally, the cuts are being made at the behest of the lobby organizations and media operations owned by rich people and large corporations.

Friday, July 15, 2011

From the "Math is hard" file.

While Dave Reichert gathers bouquets for his bold break with his caucus over the twisted light bulb issue, when you do the math the valor of the deed seems somewhat diminished.

With the measure falling over 50 votes short of passage, it didn't much matter what he did, and his sponsors understand that once in awhile Dave's gotta take one of those votes to keep the tree huggers at bay.

Time's a wastin'!

Just in case you've changed addresses in the last 48 hours, or turned 18 yesterday, or have some undoubtedly similarly good reason for not being registered to vote, you have until Monday, July 18 to fill out a paper form and mail it in or register online in order to vote in this year's primary election.

Voting's not a privilege, it's a right. It's not a choice, it's a duty. If you need to, get registered.

My money comes and goes…

New data released by the IRS reveals that, over a period of 12 years, tax rates for the richest 400 Americans were effectively cut in half. In 1995, the richest 400 Americans paid, on average, 29.93% of their income in federal taxes. In 2007, the last year for which the IRS has released data, the richest 400 Americans paid just 16.63%.

In 1995, just 12 of the 400 richest Americans paid an effective tax rat of between zero and 15%. By 2007, that number skyrocketed to over 150. The massive reduction is due to both Bush-era tax reductions for the wealthy and the aggressive exploitation of tax dodges and shelters.

Damn right it's a class war, and "don't retreat, reload" is starting to sound like good, if still figurative, advice.

Am I an Obamabot?

A confession.

I'm a wine snob. I don't drink much wine these days, because I don't drink plonk and I can't afford the wines I love, which tend to be things like ancient Ports, aged Brunellos and, yes, $350 Burgundies. Thus, I tend more toward envy than outrage over the bottle spotted on Paul Ryan's dinner table recently. I can only hope he has the palate to appreciate it.

An Upper Left endorsement.

Since Rob McKenna chased him out of the governor's race, one of the most prominent names being floated as a possible Republican opponent for Senator Maria Cantwell is Seattle Port Commissioner Bill Bryant. Bryant, meanwhile is on the re-election campaign trail, courting the local Teapublican outfit, the Shoreline Caucus.

A Teapublican Senator for Washington? Bad idea. A Teapublican Port Commissioner in King County? Just as bad.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Clear?

The United States is not bankrupt. Social Security is not about to founder. Wall Street is not on a precipice, the IMF is not standing by demanding massive shifts in our government, and U.S. bonds are not trading 1:1 with Charmin. There is nothing wrong.

Nothing except that the Republican Party is prepared to slice the nation's throat to get its way.

From the "Me too" file.

I don't know anything about who Casey Anderson is or what she did or didn't do, and I don't know any good reason that I should. Life without cable can be very rewarding. As a matter of principle, though, I agree with Miami attorney Brian Tannebaum...

To all those asking what I think of the verdict? I think a jury of 12 people agreed the state didn't prove the case, and when 12 people can read instructions and evaluate evidence and come to a unanimous decision, I am happy that the Constitution is still a part of our system, no matter how many politicians and self hating lawyers try to tear it down.

From the "Bring it on!" file.

State Republican Party chairman Kirby Wilbur spoke to reporters this morning in Washington about a new Republican-paid ad airing in 50 states that attacks President Obama’s record on the economy.

The Republican National Committee held press briefings with 13 states, including Washington. It and state Republican chairman Kirby Wilbur suggested the Evergreen State could be among the dozen or so battleground states for president in 2012 – despite Obama winning here by double-digits in 2008 over John McCain.

Among reasons for optimism: The governor’s race is expected to be close here with Republican Rob McKenna and Democrat Jay Inslee the top candidates already announced. Republicans also hope to field a strong challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.

If the Republican National Committee's presidential strategy is to commit resources to my fair state, well, good on 'em. Republican dollars spent have as much stimulus effect as any dollars spent, and we can use the help, even if the money's ultimately wasted in the effort.

We will have an exceptional statewide ticket on the 2012 undercard. Senator Cantwell will be on the ballot, with Rep. Jay Inslee looking for a move back to this Washington and the Governor's mansion and my own personal King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson vying to become Attorney General. They're all organized and active more than a year out from the primary to the degree that their nominations are assumed by every observer I'm aware of as credible, if less impressive, challengers have opted out of the contests.

The retirement of Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed represents the end of an era of Republicanism in this state. He's really the last serving member of the generation of young reformists who followed Governor Daniel Evans (yeah, he served in the US Senate too, but he'll always be Governor Evans up here) into public life. One of Evans' most historically significant achievements was driving the John Birch Society out of the Washington State Republican Party. If today's Republicans were interested in a template for expunging its radical elements and reasserting it’s role in America's political mainstream, Dan Evans' success a half a century or so ago still merits study.

They aren't interested in any such a thing, of course, and therein lies the rub. Evans himself eventually found himself lost in a Republican Party that found itself increasingly in the thrall extremist ideologues and religious fundamentalists. Of course, the candidates that emerged from as they moved further and further to the fringe lost consistently and sometimes catastrophically. Republicans who actually cared about electoral success gathered under the banner of Mainstream Republicans, which apparently means Republicans who aren't necessarily (or even probably) "moderate," but who aren't completely bat guano crazy, either. Exhibit A in the 2012 field is Attorney General Rob McKenna, who will face Inslee for Governor.

The problem is that the current crop of Republican presidential aspirants looks a lot more like the parade of ideologues and fundies that have been such losers with the Washington electorate than it does like Rob Mckenna or his protégé, Reagan Dunn, who will be Ferguson's likely opponent. There's nobody in the Presidential crop likely to seek or deserve the mantle "mainstream." They aren't going to move for McKenna's benefit. It could be disastrous if he moved for theirs, but their supporters will be his base. It's a horny dilemma. Either McKenna runs without, if not against, his party's national ticket or he embraces the radicalism at the root of Republicanism and takes his place on the political scrap pile with the likes of Linda Smith and Ellen Craswell, not simply defeated, but discredited.

In either event, there's no value added there for Republican presidential prospects hereabouts, which are dismal even without one of the most impressive statewide Democratic fields in many years.

Once again…

…I'm posting my 4th of July memories, originally composed in 2004. It still says everything I want to say about the day.

This year I'm working instead of marching again, but I've invited a bunch of my musical buddies to come down and pick on the patio. Since the most appropriate marketing term for the mélange of pop, country, blues and bluegrass we're guilty of would be 'Americana,' a jam seems appropriate for the occasion.

It's the fortieth anniversary of the trip that inspired the post. Happy 4th to everyone and welcome home to all you old soldiers out there. Young ones, too.

I was a soldier once…

...and one of the lasting effects has been to make Independence Day a bit more meaningful to me. 33 years ago today I was on a plane bound for the air base in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. We took off on July 3 and about 24 hours later, landed on July 5. That year, there was no Independence Day for me. The international date line swallowed the 4th of July whole.

A year later, I celebrated the 4th as a civilian for the first time in three years, and every year since, it's given me pause as I've reflected on that trans-Pacific voyage and the events that followed. I served at a time when the war was over for a lot of people - people who accepted Nixon's strategy of slow withdrawal. Thousands were coming home, after all. Still, many of us were still going over. We were the 'left overs,' the 'clean up crew.' We were the men John Kerry was speaking for in his famous Senate testimony, the ones who risked being among the last to die for a war that had by then been widely recognized as a mistake.

Today, the Brilliant and Beautiful Bride of Upper Left and I journeyed across the county to visit the traveling reproduction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly known as The Wall. As I walked along the panels carrying the 58,228 names of those who died in Vietnam, the black tablets grew larger, and at the very apex, filling three of the tallest panels, I found the names of those who died while I was in country. Hundreds and hundreds of names. Among them the name of one of my basic training sergeants. A case, I prayed, of mistaken identity, hoping, but not at all certain, that there must have been another Sgt. Luis Campos, and the gruff bear of a man that taught me to use a rifle with confidence and a bayonet with ferocity retired comfortably without facing another tour in Vietnam.

Whether he was my Sgt. Campos or not isn't so important, really. I was lucky. My battalion took losses, but my company came through unscathed. I saw bodies, but not of those I knew best, those I called friends. Still, each of the names on that wall, and especially on those three tall, silent panels, was more than a stranger. They were, they are, my brothers, every one.

I missed a 4th of July in 1971. They've missed every one since. Tomorrow, I'll put on a uniform and travel north to parade with a veteran's drill team in a small town celebration, and come home to burn some meat and drink some beer with my family. It's bound to be a good day. I have 58,228 reasons to celebrate, because they can't, and I owe them.

Goff and Hall both worked on Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign in 2008 and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s campaign in 2010. Goff stated that she resigned because the Cain campaign refused to make a serious effort in Iowa, the home of the First-in-the-Nation caucuses.

I guess a veteran of the Thompson "campaign" would know a non-serious effort when she sees it. I'm more impressed, though, by this note…

Cain has not yet released his quarterly fundraising numbers.

In politics, "refused to make a serious effort" sometimes translates to "won't work the damn phones."

Friday, July 01, 2011

Yes, it is.

It is the party of debt. It is the party of deficits. It is the party of recession. It is the party of unemployment. It is the party of inequality. And it is the party of middle-class stagnation and slippage.